A medical show has never won Best Drama Series twice at the Emmys — not even ER, the mega-hit that quasi-inspired The Pitt. That milestone is expected to finally be achieved this year.
HBO Max‘s The Pitt is Gold Derby’s front-runner for Best Drama Series, with a leading 97% chance of earning a repeat nomination. The lineup is expected to include Apple TV’s Pluribus (95%), Apple TV’s Slow Horses (94%), Netflix’s The Diplomat (94%), Hulu’s Paradise (89%), HBO’s Task (89%), HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (69%), and HBO’s Euphoria (41%).
Emmy Awards Nominations 2026
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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
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Star Trek: Starfleet Academy
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Talamasca: The Secret Order
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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds
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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
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Outlander: Blood of My Blood
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The Last Thing He Told Me
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Your Friends and Neighbors
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Last year, The Pitt received 13 Emmy nominations and won five: Best Drama Series, Best Drama Actor for Noah Wyle, Best Drama Supporting Actress for Katherine LaNasa, Best Drama Guest Actor for Shawn Hatosy, and Best Drama Casting.
Wyle leads The Pitt ensemble as Michael “Robby” Robinavitch, a senior attending physician at Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. He originally rose to fame as John Carter, a medical student-turned-attending physician, on ER. Both shows are produced by R. Scott Gemmill and John Wells, who years ago considered making The Pitt a spin-off of ER focused on Carter. Warner Bros. Television ultimately failed to reach an agreement with the late ER creator Michael Crichton’s estate, so the concept was scrapped.
During its 15-year run on NBC, ER received 124 Emmy nominations and won 23, including Best Drama Series in 1996 for its second season. It was never able to reclaim that title, losing six other times to NYPD Blue (1995), Law & Order (1997), The Practice (1998 and 1999), and The West Wing (2000 and 2001).
The only other hospital show to win Best Drama Series at the Emmys was Marcus Welby, M.D. The ABC show starring Robert Young in the titular role prevailed in 1970, but couldn’t claim a repeat win, losing its two other bids to The Bold Ones: The Senator (1971) and Elizabeth R (1972).
Shows about doctors are often nominated at the Emmys, and frequently win statuettes in other categories — just not Best Drama Series. Fan favorites like Grey’s Anatomy, House, Quincy, M.E., and St. Elsewhere were nominated multiple times in the top series race, but all came up empty-handed.
Some might argue that two-time Best Drama Series winner Picket Fences (1993 and 1994) counts as a medical show since co-lead Kathy Baker played Jill Brock, a practicing physician. However, that program was more about the broader townsfolk of Rome, Wis. — including the police force, the judicial system, and the Brock family — and wasn’t solely about Jill’s medical practice.
Likewise, 1992’s Emmy winner for Best Drama Series, Northern Exposure, starred Rob Morrow as Joel Fleischman, a New York physician forced to practice medicine in Alaska. The show was about the entire town of Cicely, and wasn’t specifically focused on Joel’s doctor’s office.
Emmy Awards Nominations 2026
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In addition to Best Drama Series, The Pitt is also predicted to receive Emmy bids for Best Drama Actor (Wyle), Best Drama Supporting Actress (LaNasa and Taylor Dearden), Best Drama Supporting Actor (Patrick Ball and Gerran Howell), Best Drama Guest Actress (Tal Anderson and Brittany Allen), and Best Drama Guest Actor (Hatosy and Jeff Kober).
The 2026 Emmys nominations will be announced July 8.
